What products can you remember that have disappeared?

[GusB]

Heinz sandwich spread.

This is still available:

Online Food Shopping | Grocery Delivery | ASDA Groceries

Shop online at ASDA Groceries. The same great prices as in store, delivered to your door or click and collect from store.

groceries.asda.com

 

[John Hunt]

Hydrovane 152 DS Compressor - until the 80's (?) a common sight on UK roadworks. Looked like an overturned boat, bright yellow.
(check out the first Star Wars movie which was filmed at Elstree - one appears on screen for a second or so just before the Millenium Falcon escapes from spaceport....)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Heinz sandwich spread.

Still available in both 'Original' and 'Light' variants (not sure what the difference is, less fat content in the latter?)

Not seen the cucumber version of Heinz Sandwich Spread for some time, though.

 

[Bevan Price]

Robertsons Jams, with a golliwog image on the labels. They still make marmalade, with a different image on the labels, but the jams have long gone into history, along with the now non-PC image.

 

[Ostrich]

Rinstead Pastilles for mouth ulcers, apparently discontinued in the UK around 2012.
Only found that out recently when I asked for some at the local pharmacy!

 

[Jimini]

Rinstead Pastilles for mouth ulcers, apparently discontinued in the UK around 2012.
Only found that out recently when I asked for some at the local pharmacy!

Found that out a couple of years ago when I tried to unsuccessfully buy some, same as you. They worked!!

 

[david1212]

Little boxes of powdered soup - Knorr ? Chef

Kunzle cakes

Chocolate sweets cigarettes and cigars, there were effectively sugar sticks ones too.

Fairy green bar soap

Izal Medicated Strong Toilet Tissue Paper - aka John Wayne or Badger's ar5e.

Other than 35mm most camera film sizes that were sold by Boots, Dixons, Jessops etc. e.g. 126, 110, disc

MiniDiscs and players, DAT and DCC too.

CRT TV's and monitors. While not disappeared how many people now own a stand-alone radio ?

Floppy disks 8", 5.25", 3.5" and 3" Amstrad.

ZIP disks and drives.

ST506 hard drives, are IDE still manufactured ?

Fax machines

Lucas car components and accessories

The 3V cycle light batteries have been mentioned but others sizes are No8, 1289 rectangular & 126 bell. PP9 still are available but I don't think PP7 or PP6.

 

[DerekC]

Jenolite rust remover - I caused a laugh when my dad sent me to buy some at the local hardware shop and I asked for gelignite!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

McVitie's caramel-topped digestive biscuits.

These are still available - unless they've stopped them in the last month or so. I'm going to Tesco tomorrow and if they're on sale, I'm having some...

 

[yorksrob]

Birdseye boil in the bag curry.

The modern microwave version just doesn't do the rice as well !

 

[OhNoAPacer]

A chocolate bar I remember from the late 70s or early 80s was Jellymallo, there was also a Toffeemallo.

 

[najaB]

ST506 hard drives, are IDE still manufactured ?

I believe PATA drives were still being made a few years ago but suspect the rise of SSDs has seen them off.

 

[Gloster]

Do they still make those square pots of Kia-Ora orange juice with a little ring to push a straw through in the centre? An unmissable, or unavoidable, part of visiting the cinema in the ‘60s, along with pots of Neapolitan ice-cream and wooden spatulas that would deposit half of it on your trousers, or on you if you were still in shorts.

 

[Non Multi]

Jenolite rust remover - I caused a laugh when my dad sent me to buy some at the local hardware shop and I asked for gelignite!

Jenolite's range of products is still available online. Obviously a useful item for those who run old motor vehicles.

 

[Gloster]

Toast Toppers. Small tins of grey sludge with unidentifiable red bits in them that were spread on toast and then grilled. Quite why, nobody can remember.

 

[johntea]

Vice Versa sweets, did exactly what they said on the tin really!

They seemed to come back a few years ago then vanish again, there is (was?) a Milkybar version of the same idea but they tasted nowhere near as good!

 

[GusB]

Baxter's Rosebud Beets. I didn't mind Baby Beets, but I preferred the smaller ones. I only ever got to have the branded stuff at my gran's, though. At home it was supermarket own brand.

 

[yorksrob]

Umbongo ("Dey drink it in de Congo" apparently)

Toast Toppers. Small tins of grey sludge with unidentifiable red bits in them that were spread on toast and then grilled. Quite why, nobody can remember.

They were quite tasty !

 

[GusB]

Umbongo ("Dey drink it in de Congo" apparently)

 

[yorksrob]

Takes me back a few years !

 

[D6130]

These are still available - unless they've stopped them in the last month or so. I'm going to Tesco tomorrow and if they're on sale, I'm having some...

Thanks Peter,

We only have a Co-op supermarket in Hebden Bridge, but when I return to the UK in a couple of weeks I'll go a-hunting for them further afield!

 

[nlogax]

Little boxes of powdered soup - Knorr ? Chef

Wow, yes. I remember this from my early childhood..from one tiny box came a whole bowl of chicken noodle soup. Brain couldn't comprehend it at the time.

 

[najaB]

We only have a Co-op supermarket in Hebden Bridge, but when I return to the UK...

I know Yorkshiremen like to think of their homeland as a whole different country, but that's taking it a bit far...

 

[gg1]

Some more I miss, all junk food or booze which probably says a lot about me


Pot Rice (a variant of Pot Noodle, but much nicer)
French Bread Pizzas
Heinz Baked bean pizzas
Carte D'or spagnola Ice cream (aka cherry flavour)
Irn Bru - the proper pre-sugar tax version
San Pellegrino - ditto
Bernard Matthews turkey burgers
Glenfiddich liqueur
Blackthorn cidermaster
Rekorderlig spiced plum cider

 

[D6130]

I know Yorkshiremen like to think of their homeland as a whole different country, but that's taking it a bit far...

To complicate things further....half-Scotsman, Half-Geordie - living for part of the year in Yorkshire and part of the year in Italy and got married to a Yorkshirewoman in Scotland....so married under Scots law! (If this is OT, I've found an Indian or Bangladeshi corner shop near the station in Arezzo which sells Marmite, Bird's custard powder and all manner of other British food products, some of which I hadn't realised were still available).

 

[nlogax]

Frozen supermarket 'pizzas' that came in a stack of five, each the size of a side plate and utterly lacking any resemblance to actual pizzas other than being the right shape. Not missed.

 

[gg1]

Frozen supermarket 'pizzas' that came in a stack of five, each the size of a side plate and utterly lacking any resemblance to actual pizzas other than being the right shape. Not missed.

Very cheap though, I used to eat those a lot when I was a student in the 90s, usually made more interesting with a dollop of barbecue or chilli sauce

 

[Darandio]

Frozen supermarket 'pizzas' that came in a stack of five, each the size of a side plate and utterly lacking any resemblance to actual pizzas other than being the right shape. Not missed.

Time for you to take a trip down memory lane, albeit one has been removed. https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-carlos-4-mini-pizzas-4x915g/4088600183169

 

[nlogax]

Very cheap though, I used to eat those a lot when I was a student in the 90s, usually made more interesting with a dollop of barbecue or chilli sauce

When I was a student in the 90s I discovered actual pizza, having sworn off (what I thought was) pizza because of those frozen supermarket frisbee experiences. It was a proper revelation for teenage me!

Time for you to take a trip down memory lane, albeit one has been removed. https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-carlos-4-mini-pizzas-4x915g/4088600183169

Willing to bet those are far more appetising than the ones of old.

 

[DelW]

(snip)

CRT TV's and monitors. While not disappeared how many people now own a stand-alone radio ?

(snip)

Hmmm, that prompted me to do a count around my house, and the answer was, erm, ... fifteen.

That's just radios that have no other function, and don't link with any other equipment, so doesn't include clock-radios (2), hi-fi tuners (3), ghetto-blasters (3), or pocket headphone-only radios, MP3 players, CD players or mobile phones.

I do have some excuses for what is frankly a ridiculous number:

• They are up to 40 years old, but I don't like throwing away working items, and until recently I didn't know of any charity shops that took electrical items (I have now found one, otherwise the number would have been larger still!)
• I inherited a number of radios from my father when he had to move into a care home
• Some of England's recent overseas cricket tours have had commentary only on Talksport 2, needing me to buy a couple of DAB+ radios (it's not available on radios from before about 2015)

But I do also have an attachment to old tech - following on from the discussion on the logarithms and antilogarithms thread, if I did a similar exercise on calculators and slide rules, the numbers would likely be even worse .